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Breaking Boundaries

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Breaking Boundaries
By: Tyler France B1

Breaking Boundaries

"Help me to shatter this darkness" (26). "As I Grew Older" was a famous poem written by Langston Hughes. This poem expresses fighting against oppression, which is a major theme in the Harlem renaissance. It talks about having dreams and how difficult it is to achieve them because of his color. Langston Hughes was a black American poet during the Harlem Renaissance, Hughes' poem talks about dreams and not being able to obtain them. Which one could easily link to the life of Langston Hughes or any other African American at that time because of struggle of not being truly equal to white people. Hughes was held back from reaching his dreams because of his color. Hughes was special because he was also a homosexual, which one could only imagine how much harder life was for him because of that. …show more content…
In this poem, the thing that is stoping him from reaching his dream is a wall. "But there it was then,/ bright like the sun--/ My dream/ And then the wall rose" (3-6). The wall in this poem is a metaphor of him not being able to reach his dream because of his color. The poem also notes that the wall "Rose slowly" which describes that he realizes his dreams won't be easy to obtain as he grew older. The poem expresses the idea of oppression and fighting against it. During Langston Hughes' life, black people were held back and made to believe that they were lesser beings who would not and could not reach their dreams. This idea of fighting against this discrimination was one of themes during the Harlem Renaissance. Hughes almost gave up on his dream, the line "I have almost forgotten my dream" (2) expresses that he was ready to give up because he believed his dream was unattainable, but he
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